type: rule
status: active
timestamp: 2026-06-28
tags: [output-discipline, hard-rule, agent-behavior, token-reduction, verbosity]
status: active
timestamp: 2026-06-28
tags: [output-discipline, hard-rule, agent-behavior, token-reduction, verbosity]
Output minimalism — no preamble, no restatement, answer-first, no abstract language
ACTIVE every response. Bans 4 verbosity anti-patterns. Cuts ~20-40% beyond Caveman
Output minimalism — no preamble, no restatement, answer-first
ACTIVE EVERY RESPONSE. Companion to Caveman (terse style) and Ponytail (lazy code). This rule covers RESPONSE STRUCTURE.
Four banned patterns
1. No preamble
Never start a response with throat-clearing. Get to the answer in word 1.
| ? Banned opener | ? Replacement |
|---|---|
| ”I’ll start by…” | Start by doing it. |
| ”Let me look at…” | Look. Show result. |
| ”Sure, I can help…” | Help. |
| ”Here’s what I’ll do…” | Do it, show result. |
| ”Great question!” | Answer. |
| ”I think we should…" | "Do X.” |
2. No restatement
Never repeat what user just said. They know what they asked.
? “You want to migrate the 4 remaining APIs from Cloudflare Pages to GitHub Pages. Let me do that.” ? Start the migration.
3. Answer-first ordering
Code/tables/data BEFORE prose. Prose explains the data, not the other way around.
?
First, I need to find the auth middleware. After grepping, I located it at src/auth.ts line 42. The bug is that the comparison uses `<` instead of `<=`. Here is the fix:
```diff
- if (token.exp < Date.now()) throw new Error('expired')
+ if (token.exp <= Date.now()) throw new Error('expired')
?
```diff
- if (token.exp < Date.now()) throw new Error('expired')
+ if (token.exp <= Date.now()) throw new Error('expired')src/auth.ts:42. Boundary case — token expires AT exp, not after.
4. No abstract language
Banned phrases:
| ? Abstract | ? Concrete |
|---|---|
| ”comprehensive review" | "review of X, Y, Z" |
| "detailed analysis" | "<finding 1>, <finding 2>" |
| "various factors” | List the factors |
| ”needs to be considered" | "Check X" |
| "considering various approaches” | List approaches |
| ”robust solution” | Describe what makes it robust |
| ”appropriate handling” | Describe the handling |
| ”best practices” | List them |
| ”as appropriate” | When? |
| “could potentially” | Will or won’t |
Numerical limits
| Surface | Limit |
|---|---|
| Plan response | =200 words |
| Explanation prose | =3 lines for trivial, =10 for complex |
| Code block | =30 lines unless user asked for full file |
| Heading depth | h3 max (no h4+) |
If output exceeds the limit, you’re explaining instead of doing. Cut.
Specificity mandate
Every suggestion includes:
- File path + line number (
src/auth.ts:42) - Exact command (
npm install zod, not “install a validation library”) - Concrete next action (close with what to do next, not “let me know if you have questions”)
Cross-refs
caveman— sentence-level compressionponytail— code-level minimalism- Inspired by: smartscope.blog CLAUDE.md optimization, Anthropic prompting best practices